


What Mama Knew

by TunnelRabbit



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: F/M, Pregnancy, The Bone Eater's Well, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2020-12-21 01:40:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21066659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TunnelRabbit/pseuds/TunnelRabbit
Summary: Mama Higurashi seemed awfully sanguine about sending her 15-year-old daughter into the jaws of death regularly with nothing but a first-aid kit and a well-packed bento, didn't she? It's like she *knew* that it was going to turn out all right in the end--that it would all be worth it.How could she be so sure?





	1. Chapter 1

Tamao ascended the shrine steps, one step at a time—in her slim, office-girl skirt and pumps she could hardly do otherwise—but her heart felt as though it were filled with helium and that if she could just let go of the string, she would float to the top.

Three months of morning sickness and fatigue had evaporated overnight—that was part of it, the glorious second trimester she’d been promised—but the sheer glee had a simpler source.

She skittered across the shrine grounds, heels clicking on the stones like those of a flamenco dancer.

“Had a good day, did you?”

Tamao nearly ran into her mother-in-law, walking backwards as she swept the space before the Goshinboku, and spun out of the way like a whirligig to avoid her. She stopped herself with a quick bow. “So sorry, Okāsan.”

Her mother-in-law eyed her skeptically, as if somehow doubting her sincerity—of course she was sorry! “You’ve got that secret smile.”

“Pardon—?” Now she was supposedly hiding things?

“One would think you held a treasure beneath your heart.”

Only then did Tamao notice the unexpected twinkle in her deepset eyes. With a smile she made another little bow. “Not so secret any more. I gave notice today.”

“About time. There’s never been a lack of work for you around the shrine.”

“No, Okāsan. Soon I’ll be here every day to help you.”

“About time.”

Tamao gritted her teeth and smiled. Okāsan had every right to expect her to take on the full duties of a priest’s wife, three years into her marriage, and so she had tried hard to perform perfectly. But it was 1980 and a woman could earn a salary—a salary that had provided her and her husband funds of their own beyond his father’s allowance. It was not an insignificant contribution to their future.

The old woman went back to sweeping the already spotless ground and gestured vaguely past the tree. “They’re in there, fixing the old well.”

Tamao excused herself and scurried to the well house. No one ever went in there. It was dark and creepy and the well had been dried up and boarded over for centuries. She didn’t understand why they hadn’t simply filled it long ago and converted the building to other uses—there never seemed to be enough storage space to house the hoard of peculiar artifacts that her father-in-law fussed over incessantly. Some sort of old superstition prevented them, most likely.

She pushed aside the rickety old door and slipped inside. She could see nothing, eyes not yet adjusted.

_>crack!<_

She jumped back, heart thumping in her chest.

“There. That’s the last one.” It was just her husband, satisfied and letting something fall with a clatter.

“That was the easy part,” his father countered gruffly. “Hurry and get these new planks on.”

“Hold on—that was hard work.” Tamao could now see her Kazuki and his father in the center of the room, several steps below the platform she stood on. Kazuki lifted his head to take a swig from a water bottle and saw her.

“Tamao! You’re home already.”

“The boss let me go an hour early. A little ‘congratulations’ present.” She automatically shielded her grin behind her hand.

Kazuki's grin was wide, front and center. “You gave notice.”

“Congratulations, Tamao-chan,” her father-in-law acknowledged her news seriously. “We really must get this well covered as soon as possible, I’m afraid. Then perhaps a pot of tea?”

“What are you two doing down there? I’ve never even been in here.”

“Oh, these old planks were rotting out. They must have been on here for hundreds of years. Dad wanted to replace them to make sure no one falls in by accident. The well house is kept locked, but you never know—a vagrant, even a stray cat, could get in here.”

“It’s not just who could get _in,”_ his father corrected him with his usual intensity. “The ofuda’s have faded and decayed!” He turned to Tamao. “Do you remember the name of this well? It’s called the Bone-Eater’s Well. Five hundred years ago, the bones of a vicious demon were buried here on this sacred site and we must keep it well guarded and spiritually protected, to make sure the demon does not emerge again. So! Back to work.” He bent over and attempted to pick up a heavy oak plank by himself.

“Dad! Let me!” Kazuki hurried over to grab the other end.

Tamao sat down on the edge of the platform, feet dangling, to watch the men work. Kazuki swung each board up onto the well with an enthusiasm matched by his father’s grim determination. Handsome and playful, Kazuki was maybe a little too happy-go-lucky sometimes, but his heart was true, and he always got the job done. As much as he frustrated his parents sometimes, no one doubted his commitment to the shrine and his family’s legacy. Tamao hoped that the child she carried would embrace the responsibilities he inherited with as much love as his father.

One by one, they settled the boards into place and nailed them down. They had only two or three to go when Kazuki stumbled slightly and bumped the jar of nails balanced on the edge of the well.

“Oh no!” The jar hit the bottom of the well with a muffled crash. Kazuki peered down into the gloom. “Should I climb down and get it?”

“Are you crazy? No! It’s only a jar of nails. Stay here and guard the well. I’ll go get some more.” The old man stomped off, turning back before he left the house: “Pray,” he ordered his son. “And don’t stop till I get back.”

“Yes, Dad.” Kazuki caught Tamao’s eye and winked, and as soon as the coast was clear, stepped over to her and held out his arms to her. She let him grasp her by the waist and he swung her down to the floor. They stood there in each other’s arms, gazing at each other with start-struck smiles, like they were newly in love all over again.

“It seems so real now,” she said softly. “We’re really going to have a baby. I’m really going to be a mother.” Her heart lifted within her so giddily, she had to throw her arms around him fully and smush her face against his neck to keep herself grounded, holding him as tightly as she could.

“I love you, Tamao. I love you so much. We’re going to have a beautiful family and a beautiful life together.” He swung her around again, this time to seat her on the edge of the well where he could see her better by the stripe of daylight that came in through the partly opened door above.

She looked down behind her. It was a dark, square hole, nothing more, smelling cool and musty. She pressed her hand to her mouth in mock horror. “But—the well! I’ll be eaten by a demon! Shouldn’t you be praying?”

Kazuki placed his hands on her knees, and with one glance towards the open door, leaned in closer, pursuing her as she pulled back a little, teasing him. Not too far—she could feel his warm breath on her lips when he spoke. “I do not think my prayers would be efficacious right now. My thoughts are far too impure….” He closed the last millimeters between them, and their lips just touched—

“We’ll be at least another two hours here, Mama. Can’t leave the well unprotected, and the new ofudas will….”

Tamao never heard the rest. At the sound of his father’s voice, Kazuki jumped back and released her knees, and with her counterbalance suddenly gone, she tipped backward into the well. She didn’t have time to shriek, just worried, _I’m going to land on those nails and broken glass,_ as if _that_ were the worst that would happen. Faintly, far away, she heard Kazuki's frightened yells for help, and his father’s cries of distress. Too far away—why hadn’t she hit the ground?

Darkness was all around her and she felt was a peculiar tingle in her womb, a cool glow, as she tumbled impossibly deep. Pricks and swirls of color—blue, purple, silver—appeared around her. Or was she simply loosing oxygen to her brain, about to pass out? Perhaps she was already unconscious and half dead at the bottom of the well? She felt awake.

And she hit the ground. Except…she didn’t. There was no impact. She was falling and then suddenly the ground was beneath her. If she didn’t know better, she’d say she’d fallen up.

The walls of the well surrounded her, but they looked different than she expected. Rougher, woodier. She reached out and touched one. Why was the wood down here so untouched by age, when the boards above had rotted out? The light was different, too, brighter. She looked up and was astonished to see a square of the purest blue some five meters above, half screened by some kind of leafy growth that spilled over into the well. That had _definitely_ not been there a minute ago.

_What on earth?_

“Kazuki! Otō-san!” There was no answer.

Tamao got to her feet and checked herself over, brushing off the well dirt (trying not to think of ancient demon corpses, which somehow seemed a tiny bit less ridiculous now). Her body seemed fine—not so much as a scrape or a bruise. She had some concerns about her psychological condition, however.

“Kazuki!” She yelled much louder this time. “Otō-san! Help! I’m stuck in the well!”

Still nothing. Listening more carefully this time, she heard the breeze rustling through trees—which she did not remember hearing from inside the well house before—and the faint trilling of birdsong, also much clearer than usual. Of course, the sounds of traffic usually muted the sounds of nature. And there was no traffic now.

“Have I gone insane?” she asked herself out loud. And now she was talking to herself. Not good. “Kazuki! Oka-san! Oto-san! Anybody? _Help me, please!!”_

She stood there, helpless and confused, shouting for help for some time, but no one came. Very well, she would have to help herself. She began searching for a way to climb out.

She examined every square inch of the wood-paneled walls—and did find some gouges about the size needed for a toehold, marching upwards, at just the right spacing. But what would you hold onto? Had someone else had reason to climb up out of this well? (_Demons,_ the untrustworthy part of her mind whispered.) With some kind of a rope perhaps? There was no such thing here.

But there were vines. That leafy stuff, it was viney. Kudzu, maybe? Tamao was a Tokyo girl—she didn’t know much about plants that didn’t grow in pots. She was jumping up and down like a little child, trying to reach the lowest-hanging vines, when a shadow fell over her.

Startled, she looked up to see two people looking down at her from the top of the well, silhouetted, so that she couldn’t make out their features. Or maybe not _people,_ precisely, because one seemed to have pointed ears, like a dog, twitching forward with interest. She shrank back against the wall, now wishing for vines to hide behind.

“Oh my God!” the one without the ears gasped. It was a woman. “It’s—” She slapped her hand over her mouth.

The dog-eared turned to her, grabbed her and pulled her away. Tamao could hear an urgent, whispered conversation just beyond the well, mostly inaudible, but a few words came through:

“It can’t be—! ….”

“….my nose doesn’t lie….” _His nose?_ So he really was a dog or something?

“….so young!....” The woman seemed amazed by this. Tamao was twenty-five, an utterly unremarkable age. Surely, her presence in the bottom of a well was a bit more surprising than her youth?

“But she never said….!”

“Well, apparently…. ….ask her….”

“No….remember….scare her….” What did they think she’d be scared of? Aside from everything that had happened so far? This conversation was not comforting.

Their voices quieted down after that, much less emotional, and Tamao couldn’t make out any more.

After a couple more minutes, the woman’s head reappeared.

“Hello down there!”

“Um, hello?”

“We’re going to get you out of there.”

“Ok.” Anything was better than being stuck in a well, right? Even meeting a talking, humanoid dog who might want to scare her? She nodded vigorously, mostly to convince herself.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t think to bring any rope. We didn’t realize there would just be a, uh, normal human being in the well.” Huh. But they did know something was in the well? Hidden camera? An alarm? “And unfortunately, the vines haven’t grown back from last time.” _Last time?_ “So…” The woman glanced back over her shoulder. “This is going to seem strange to you, and I don’t want you to be scared. I trust my husband with my life—more importantly, with my children’s lives. You could not be in safer hands.”

Tamao found herself soothed by the warm, reassuring voice in spite of herself. It was easy to believe she was a mother. Wait—husband?

“He’s not human, you see, so he can get you out quite easily.”

The dog ears popped into the frame again. “Are you ready?”

Fortunately, he didn’t give her the chance to answer, because she never would have been. To her shock, he landed beside her, with the ease of stepping off a curb, and offered her his back. She stared at the mane of impossibly soft white hair. He was dressed in a brilliant kimono--fire-red, top to toe. And yes, there were the ears. “Hop on!” he invited her after a frozen moment.

As if in a dream, she climbed onto his back, again feeling like an oversized little girl. And the next moment, they had sprung out of the well and onto the green grass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I came up with this idea about a year ago and wrote up the first bit (and the convoluted timeline). Just found it again and decided I can finish it. 2-3 more chapters coming. Hope you like it!
> 
> Comments are the stuff of life!


	2. Chapter 2

Tamao found herself in an open meadow, knee-deep in grass and wildflowers, fluttery insects buzzing around her. She took a deep breath as she slid off the dog-man’s back and thought she had never tasted air so fresh.

“I know. It’s quite something, isn’t it?” The woman stood before her, hands clasped before her and smiling warmly, almost like a proud child presenting her work. But she was not at all a child, she was a middle-aged woman, wisdom and sadness showing in her eyes, laugh-lines brightening them. She also looked familiar somehow, but Tamao could not place her.

“Keh. Just a meadow like any other.”

Now Tamao got a good look at her savior. It was rude to stare, of course, but under the circumstances, she thought she could be forgiven. The man was quite tall and fair, with extraordinary white hair that fell past his waist, gleaming in the sunshine. And despite the dog ears, he had an entirely human face, with striking golden eyes. He stood with his legs apart, hands on his hips and elbows wide, as if he were used to taking up space—and why not, with this much space available? Then he smiled at her, like he was genuinely glad to see her—and, oh, the teeth were not human, either.

“I’m Inuyasha. Kagome’s husband.” He aimed a perfunctory wave at the woman, who smiled warmly, taking no offense at his rudeness. “We’re the protectors of the Bone Eater’s Well.”

“Among other things.”

He nodded. “Among other things.”

So many questions crowded into her throat, Tamao could only stammer, until she remembered her basic manners. “Other—? Oh, yes. And, uh…yes. My name is Tamao.” She bowed politely. “Wife of Higurashi Kazuki, of Higurashi Shrine in Tokyo.”

“Ah.” Kagome nodded wisely.

“You know it?”

“Well, Tokyo is not….” Kagome looked up at her husband. “How shall we do this?”

Inuyasha reached out and squeezed his wife’s hand, as if reassuring her. “Let’s tell her what she needs to know. No sense in drawing it out—it’ll just confuse her more.” He turned to Tamao and told her bluntly, “You travelled back in time. Tokyo ain’t built yet.”

Tamao stared at him. The practical part of her mind, the part that always carried on, just dealing, observed that it was a good thing _he_ had told her, in his rough words—with the dog ears and all, it made such a wildly fantastical claim almost believable. The rest of her mind seized up. Her mouth laughed. Because it was absurd.

“No, he’s right.” Kagome looked concerned, reached out and stroked her arm to comfort her, and then Tamao started to doubt her own sanity in earnest.  
  
“Am I ok?”

Inuyasha furrowed his brow and looked her up and down. “You seem to be. Kagome? You wanna take a look?”

Kagome gave him a look that would be one of pity if there hadn’t been so much fondness in it. “She means her _mind_, Inuyasha. We’ve made her think she’s crazy. Yes, m—Tamao, that’s what the well does. Among other things. You are in exactly the same place you were when you fell in. And as you can see—” she gestured expansively “—there is no Tokyo.”

“Ok.” Tamao gathered her thoughts, which refused to stay put, but managed the next logical question. “Then what year is it?”

“The ninth year of the Tenshō era. Or, um….” Kagome counted quickly on her fingers. “1581 A.D.”

“Oh.” Tamao took that in. Counting seemed a good way to cope. “Four hundred years ago. Three hundred and ninety-nine, actually.”

“Right. So…1980? Of course.” Kagome nodded, as if to herself, as if that somehow made sense. “You said you’re married. Any children yet?”

A normal question, asked casually—almost too casually. “No, not just yet.”

Kagome and Inuyasha exchanged another one of those looks that contained an entire conversation and they reached another agreement.

“Tamao, do you want us to send you back right away, or would you like to stay awhile? Would you like a peek at Sengoku Era Japan?”

That was not an offer Tamao was prepared to consider. In the sense that it was not the sort of thing she’d ever expected to be offered. She hesitated. “I don’t know…. They’ll be so worried about me back home. They just saw me fall into a well, didn’t they? I’d hate to upset them….”

Kagome seemed to be hanging on her every word. Why did this matter so much to her?

“C’mon, Tamao,” Inuyasha pushed her, eyes flickering to Kagome. “When’re you gonna have this chance again? If you go back, you’ll probably never make it through the well again. Never get to breath this clean air again.”

Tamao took a deep breath, savoring the delicate fragrance of meadowsweet and lilies, intermingled with the luscious smell of, well, _green_, for lack of a better word. He had a point—it was certainly better for the baby than Tokyo smog. She closed her eyes and pushed the Higurashis out of her mind and thought of her own mother. _Sometimes you’ve just got to take a chance, Tamao. _

“All right. I’ll stay a little while. Just to see what it’s like in your time.”

Kagome exhaled and stepped forward almost like she was going to embrace her, then stopped herself. “You will be perfectly safe until you decide to go home. We take you under our protection.”

“We do.”

It sounded like a formal vow of some kind and it was strangely reassuring.

Kagome’s eyes flickered to Tamao’s belly and her expression grew thoughtful. “Ah…you know, Inuyasha, I should probably walk Tamao back to the village, get her settled in. Perhaps you’d like to…uh, go hunting?”

“That deer yesterday wasn’t enough to—? Oh. Yes. I’ll just… hunt something. See ya!” And he bounded off into the forest in two or three superhuman leaps.

That was weird. Tamao tried to see where he’d gone, but the flash of red had already disappeared among the trees. It was a real forest, dense and dark. Not a carefully tended arboretum, like the “forests” in the parks at home. Kagome looped her arm through Tamao’s and gave it a maternal pat as she steered them in the opposite direction, towards a wide, well-tended path leading into more forest. There was a lot of forest, Tamao realized, looking around.

“Never mind him. Inuyasha’ll be back soon enough. You must be hungry. Kazue’s got a good stew on the fire today—some of that deer he mentioned. Nothing fancy, but my daughter is a good cook.”

They’d come to the edge of the meadow and Tamao’s eye was drawn by a particularly massive tree that stood a bit apart on its own—tall and straight, spreading its canopy of green over the border between the grass and the trees. She slowed her steps to gaze at it.

“Do you recognize it?” Kagome watched her closely.

Tamao blinked. Yes, tie a shimenawa rope hung with shide streamers and domesticate it with a protective fence, and yes.

“Goshinboku,” she breathed, and felt a little closer to home.

Kagome gave her arm a gentle squeeze and guided her into the woods. As they left the venerable tree behind, in an unhurried stroll, she began to chat lightly, as if Tamao would have every reason to be interested in her family, and Tamao began to relax. Kagome was a very comfortable person.

“Rin is one of my best friends—you’ll love her. She is extraordinary. And at the same time, completely ordinary. She and I have just welcomed our first grandchild into the world. That sounds funny.” Kagome laughed at her choice of words. “I mean, her son married Kazue a little over a year ago, and now they have a baby, but Rin and I have been friends forever—since she was a child. Adopted by Inuyasha’s brother, you see.”

“I see. So she’s…like him?”

“Like Sesshoumaru? No, no she’s just human.”

“Sesshoumaru is…?”

“Inuyasha’s brother. Half-brother, actually, but he’s softened up a lot the last few years—doesn’t mind so much if we forget to say the ‘half’ part. He used to be an insufferable snob about it—well, ‘bigot’ might be more accurate. Murderous asshole? He tried to kill Inuyasha countless times. But he’s over that now. Sesshoumaru’s full youkai, you see, and back then, he couldn’t stand that Inuyasha wasn’t.”

“Isn’t youkai?” Tamao doggedly pursued this thread, rather than sort out the idea that Kagome was sister-in-law to a murderer.

“Isn’t full-blooded. He’s a hanyou.”

“So that's…half youkai? Wait, youkai are real?”

Kagome turned to look her full in the face. “Ma-Tamao! You just met one! You’re a shrine wife. Don’t you believe in the spirits?”

“Yes, the kami, but youkai?”

“It’s all the—well, it’s not _the same_. But the supernatural and the natural—the human and the otherworldly—it’s one continuum. Or a complex web, everything intertwined, with nodes of connection and tension that hold it all together—that’s a better metaphor.”

Tamao thought back to her father-in-law’s grave insistence that Kazuki pray to keep the demons out of the well and conceded that his concerns had some validity. “You know much more about this than I do. I’m rather new at being a priest’s wife, you know.”

“Oh, I know.” Kagome gave her arm another reassuring pat. “You’ll be fine.”

Tamao didn’t ask how she knew. “So you have a daughter? With Inuyasha?” She realized with a jolt that Kagome had therefore slept with—had _sex_ with—a supernatural creature.

“Yes, that’s right. Kazue takes after him, except for the ears. Kind of a shame, I thought. They’re one of my favorite things about him. But perhaps that’s the reason she was the one to make it—closer kin to my body. Plus, Inuyasha always said it would be easier for her without those ears marking her, and of course he’s right.”

She sighed. “It’s a hard world. The white hair gets more than enough attention as it is. Still, much better than the old days now that Oda Nobunaga-sama has calmed things down and we don’t have marauders roaming the countryside and battles breaking out all over the place. And of course much less conflict among the youkai since we destroyed the Sacred Jewel.”

Kagome’s eyes flickered down to Tamao’s belly for some reason.

“The what?”

“It’s a long story.” Kagome brushed it off, like it was a matter of far less consequence than it obviously was, and brightened up forcibly like the cheerfully polite housewives in Tamao had tea with every Wednesday. “So tell me more about your life! You said no children _yet,_ but soon, right?”

“You can tell? Most people haven’t noticed yet. But yes, I’m due in about six months.”

Kagome impulsively wrapped one arm around Tamao’s shoulders and gave her a squeeze. “I knew it. I’m so happy for you. I know you will love her very much, and you’ll be a _wonderful_ mother.”

“Her?”

“Or him!” Kagome added quickly.

Tamao took in Kagome’s white kosode and red hakama, which dog ears and time travel had overshadowed in her consciousness. “You’re a miko, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am. I can…sense things, sometimes.” She leaned in conspiratorially. “I do think it will be a girl.”

Tamao squeezed Kagome’s arm appreciatively and whispered (as if there were anyone around to keep a secret from), “I hope you’re right. Even though the family wants a boy, of course. I can’t help wanting a daughter. It’s selfish, I know.”

“How is it selfish? I’m sure she’ll give to the family just as much….” Kagome’s voice trailed off, uncertain for the first time, a furrow appearing between her eyebrows, before she regrouped and said confidently, “One way or another, the Higurashi legacy will be taken care of. They have nothing to worry about.”

“I thought _I _was the one from the future.” Tamao looked closely at Kagome, who was no longer looking at her, but at the trail ahead, or perhaps the middle distance. 

Kagome snapped her attention back with a smile. “Of course you are.” Did that sound a tiny bit patronizing? “And here we are.”

The trees thinned, rather suddenly, and rice fields opened up on either side. Up ahead, someone crouched near the path, weeding or planting or something. It took longer to get to him than Tamao expected. Because he was astonishingly huge.

“Kagome-sama,” the giant greeted her in a low, rumbly voice, turning his bulging blue eyes on them.

“Jinenji.” Kagome returned the courtesy. “Any more trouble with the caterpillars today?”

He sighed. “Well, they've left the baby peonies alone, now that we’ve treated them, but it looks like the little squirmies just moved over to Sen’s shiso patch. I got a _lot_ of talking to today.” He spoke very slowly and deliberately, like each word was a small event. Tamao could imagine how Sen’s talking might have worn him out.

“Don’t worry about it, Jinenji. I’ll talk to her. We’ll sort it out. The important thing is that we’ll have a crop of peony root to put up for the winter flu cases.”

“Thank you, Kagome-sama,” Jinenji said solemnly. There was something off about his face, more than simply ugly, something not quite human.

Tamao leaned over as they moved on and whispered in Kagome’s ear, “Another hanyou?”

Kagome nodded, immediately distracted by another woman approaching them on an intersecting footpath. Kagome waved at her with almost teenage energy. “Rin!”

“Hi, Kagome-san. You’ve been to the well?” Rin spoke to her friend, but peered up at Tamao with wide, curious eyes. She was a tiny woman, clad in a simple, peach-colored kimono, whose expression seemed open and guileless. And yet Tamao did not sense innocence in those eyes at all; those depths were not safe, and she found herself afraid of falling in. She hastily broke eye contact.

“We have indeed. Rin, I’d like to you meet _Tamao_.” She said the name with a peculiar emphasis, as if it should mean something to Rin, who blinked suddenly, so perhaps it did. “Tamao, this is Rin, our niece by adoption.”

“Your niece. Of course!” Tamao bowed politely. Her brain was overloading with new information and it was taking her longer than it should to make the connections. “It’s very nice to meet you.”

“Welcome to our village, Tamao. So, you know Kagome, then?”

“Uh…well, I feel like I do!” she answered with a warm smile, because she really did. “But we only just met, back at the well.”

“Oh!” Rin’s big eyes grew even wider. “Oh, I see. Well. I suppose the stew must be ready by now. Shall we eat?” Rin hooked her arm through Tamao’s other arm and, with Kagome, led Tamao into their village.

But Tamao was still puzzling over Rin’s reaction to meeting her. Why should she think that Kagome would already be acquainted with her? After spending more time with her, Tamao was certain that they had never met before. For that matter, how did Kagome seem to have so much insight into Higurashi family matters? And Tokyo, for goodness sake!

The answer had been there all along, but Tamao thought she could be forgiven if it had taken this long to rise to the surface of this ocean of new information: Kagome was a time traveller, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Getting there, Mama!
> 
> I'm ambling through this on no particular schedule, but I've got it all worked out now, so I'll definitely finish it. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!


End file.
